


To Last the Night (The Office of the Dead Remix)

by glim



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-18
Updated: 2014-10-18
Packaged: 2018-02-21 14:18:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2471261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glim/pseuds/glim
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur visits the abbey where his father spent his youth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Last the Night (The Office of the Dead Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [i_claudia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_claudia/gifts).
  * Inspired by [To last the night](https://archiveofourown.org/works/939384) by [i_claudia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_claudia/pseuds/i_claudia). 



> Claudia, I hope you enjoy this short remix! I loved your original story so very much and the world you created in it.

Arthur walks into the cool, quiet of the chapel and kneels down in the back. As soon as he does, the noise and bustle of the world outside the abbey fades away and is replaced with the murmur of prayer. He waits, mouthing the words in his uncertain schoolroom Latin, and feels a pang of loss, deep in his chest, though it's been a year since he's heard them. Arthur lowers his head and keeps it bent through the rest of the service. When he hears the shuffle of feet and feels a hand rest on his shoulder, he raises his head. 

*

"My father died before the harvest last year. My mother had died years before that; I barely remember her. Father raised me. He wasn't truly my father," Arthur says, before he realizes he's said the words aloud for the first time. "He married my mother and claimed me as his own, and never told anyone in Camelot. Only he and my mother knew, and…" Arthur glances across the abbey grounds; surely, somebody here knew. "I only found out just before he died. He was dreadfully frightened those last few days." 

The young man next to him stops and their footsteps echo through the cloisters, a loud and empty sound that diminishes in waves. " _Timor mortis_ ," he says, smiling sadly. Arthur had thought him one of the brothers at first, but he's too young to have taken vows. "The fear of death--" 

"Yes, yes, I know." Arthur follows the young man through the cloisters once more and past the herb garden. "Frightened, and still saddened by a sin he'd committed in his youth. He said he'd meant to return to the abbey, after my mother passed away, but the years passed by too quickly." 

"I think he regretted it, though. Leaving. I think he felt as if he were doing penance for some sin committed in his youth, running away or… I don't know. He wouldn't tell me everything."

The evening falls around them as they walk, the early autumn air rapidly cooling as the sun sets in slanting rays. The other man clasps his hands behind his back, forcing himself to walk with a slow, measured step. "I was raised here in the abbey. Well," he says, smiling suddenly this time, "Gaius raised me. Taught me to read and write, gave me the name he said my mother wanted me to have. He spoke of your father rarely, but… he spoke of him well, and sadly. Be kind to him when you talk of your father and his passing. Lie to him if you need to."

"I won't deceive him."

"You don't need to worry about your honor." The man stops in front of heavy door. "He'll know you're lying. He always knows when you're lying," he adds, ruefully. "But he'll appreciate the kind words. And the thought behind them."

"I won't lie," Arthur repeats. "I won't have to." 

* 

Arthur kneels for the second time that day, closes his eyes and rests his forehead against his clasped hands. He says the quiet prayer as best he can, sadness making the words awkward and foreign. 

"I brought you my father's papers," he says after he and Gaius are both quiet for a few minutes. "His letters and his books. I thought, perhaps, you would want to read them."

When Gaius nods, Arthur stands and lights a candle beside the one guttering on the table by the bed.


End file.
